Holding Ballard to just nine second-half points, the Norwalk boys basketball team picked up an impressive 50-25 road win Thursday night against the Class 3A 9th-ranked Bombers. Ballard won the girls game 61-35.

The Warrior boys led 22-16 at halftime before outscoring the Bombers 28-9 the rest of the way in what Norwalk coach Aaron Pelzer called a “great defensive effort.” Ballard entered the night averaging 62 points per contest.

Norwalk, now 5-3 overall, was led by Braeden Carlson’s 14 points and 11 from Redek Born. Jack Brown scored nine, followed by Cameron Thomas and Ian Fisher with seven apiece. Ballard dropped to 6-2 on the season.

The girls game was all Ballard as the Class 4A 3rd-ranked Bombers improved to 8-2 with a 61-35 victory. Ballard led 35-11 at the half and 48-15 after three quarters, getting 26 points and nine rebounds from Alliyah Thompson.

Norwalk was plagued by 27 turnovers and dropped to 2-7 – all seven losses coming against teams that are currently ranked or were ranked at the time of the game. Bailey Birmingham scored 12 points for the Warriors and Avery Thomas had 10 points and six boards.

Norwalk will host Grinnell tonight in a girl-boy varsity doubleheader starting at 6:15 p.m. Both games can be heard on kniakrls.com (KNIA3) or streamed on the Norwalk Warrior Productions YouTube channel. Pregame coverage will begin at approximately 6:00 p.m.

WRESTLING RESULTS

The Norwalk boys wrestling team won a Little Hawkeye dual at Pella, 51-27, Thursday night, improving to 3-3 overall and 3-1 in the conference.

The Warriors won seven of 12 contested matches and also received two wins by forfeit. Warrior wrestlers recording pins included Asaiah Martinez-Ruiz at 106 pounds, Jake McKenzie at 120, Donovan Card 138, Tyler Stanford 182, Kolton Borcherding-Johnson 220 and top-ranked Maddux Borcherding-Johnson 285. Maddux Borcherding-Johnson pinned his opponent in just 16 seconds.

Several Norwalk girls wrestlers competed at the Nevada Round Robin Tournament Thursday night. Kamryn McWilliams placed first in the 170-D bracket, notching three wins by fall. Samantha Bussanmas placed second at 190-C and Madeline Benge was second at 235-B, both going 1-1.

On Saturday morning, the Norwalk boys squad will compete in a dual tournament at Iowa City West and the girls will wrestle at Ogden.